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Green Housing Development Guide
About this Tool Description:
The Green Housing Development Guide is intended for use by Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) grantees, sub grantees, and contractors wishing to incorporate green building into single-family housing development or rehabilitation programs. NSP grantees and subrecipients who are new to green building are urged to view the issue holistically, including site location, materials use, interior air quality, and long term maintenance. Green building standards offer myriad benefits to occupants, the community, and the environment as a whole. The guide outlines eight green building categories that have been shown to be cost-effective in affordable housing in reducing energy and maintenance costs, improving the health and safety of the building for residents, and reducing environmental impacts. These eight categories include: 1. Integrated Design; 2. Location and Neighborhood Fabric; 3. Site Improvements; 4. Water Conservation; 5. Energy Efficiency; 6. Materials Beneficial to the Environment; 7. Healthy Living Environment; and 8. Operations and Maintenance. The green building measures described in this guide apply to new construction, substantial rehabilitation, and moderate rehabilitation.
Source of Document:
Primary source documents for this guide are the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria and “Incremental Cost, Measurable Savings: Enterprise Green Communities Criteria”, an evaluation of green-built affordable housing projects by Enterprise Community Partners. Both documents can be found at www.greencommunitiesonline.org.
Disclaimer:
This document is not an official HUD document and has not been reviewed by HUD counsel. It is provided for informational purposes only. Any binding agreement should be reviewed by attorneys for the parties to the agreement and must conform to state and local laws.
This resource is part of the NSP Toolkits. Additional toolkit resources may be found at www.hud.gov/nspta
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Page 1 Neighborhood Stabilization Program
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Green Housing Development Guide
A. Overview of Green Building Standards
Introduction
The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is an unprecedented opportunity to use HUD funds for incorporating a green building standard into a public or non-profit housing program. Comprehensive green building standards improve the lives of residents, support community revitalization, and protect the environment as a whole. There are significant social, environmental, financial and health benefits to incorporating a comprehensive set of green building standards. While some housing programs may start off with a partial approach to
“going green,” the
greatest benefits accrue from adopting a holistic green building standard that results in resource conservation, healthier living environments, and restored neighborhoods. NSP grantees who are unfamiliar with green building may feel a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of identifying and adopting new standards. Yet because the NSP clearly encourages use of green building strategies, and does not require the subsidy layering such public funding often requires, it offers an extraordinary opportunity to integrate these approaches into public housing programs. Grantees should consider using NSP funds to adopt green building principles, develop a pilot project or demonstration program, increase local capacity to develop green buildings, and spur local demand for such housing. Efforts to provide comprehensive green building standards began in the 1990s with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), which was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and initially focused on commercial buildings. In the early 2000s, a few affordable housing developers began to apply green building standards to their projects and a few cities begin to promote their own standards for affordable housing
and other residential development. Seattle’s
SeaGreen standard was an early and effective example. In 2004, the Green Communities Criteria were created as a green standard specially designed for use with affordable housing development. The Criteria were developed by Enterprise Community Partners, with input from USGBC, Southface Energy Institute, the Natural Resource Defense Council and other industry advisors. The Criteria apply to new construction, substantial rehabilitation, and
—
uniquely
—
moderate rehabilitation.
Examples of National Green Building Standards
Enterprise Green Communities www.greencommunitiesonline.org LEED for Homes www.usgbc.org
NAHB National Green Building Standard www.nahbgreen.org
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In 2004, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) published a set of green building
guidelines, which by 2008 had evolved to a “
National Green Building Standard
” focused
primarily on market-rate residential new construction and related land development.
Also in 2008, the U.S. Green Building Council released its “
LEED for Homes
”
rating system. This standard applies to new and substantially rehabilitated housing, both single-family and multifamily
—
including mid-rise but not high-rise buildings. USGBC has made special efforts to encourage adoption by affordable housing developers. Energy Star is an energy-conservation standard that was developed as a joint effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy. It is designed to help consumers save money and protect the environment through improved building and energy performance and the selection of energy efficient products and practices. Appliances that reach a certain level of energy efficiency can earn an Energy Star label, as can homes. Several national and regional green building programs use this program as the basis for their residential energy criteria. This guide is based primarily on the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, a national green building program designed specifically for affordable housing. The Criteria ensure that homes are cost effective to build, and durable and practical to maintain. In addition, the principles work together to help produce green affordable housing that: Results in a high-quality, healthy living environment
Lowers residents’ utility costs Enhances residents’ connection to nature
Protects the environment by conserving energy, water, materials and other resources Advances the health of local and regional ecosystems Like other comprehensive residential green building programs, the Criteria are divided into categories that address multiple aspects of housing development, including: 1.Integrated design 2.Site, location, and neighborhood fabric 3.Site improvements 4.Water conservation 5.Energy efficiency 6.Materials that benefit the environment 7.Healthy living environment and 8.Operations and maintenance of properties Data in this guide on the performance and costs of green building measures came from
Incremental Cost, Measurable Savings: Enterprise Green Communities Criteria,
a study by Enterprise Community Partners of 27 affordable housing projects that incorporated the Green
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Communities Criteria. It found that when the Criteria were adopted comprehensively, they offered measurable health, economic and environmental benefits. From a strictly financial standpoint, the Enterprise study found that
the projected “lifetime”
utility cost savings - averaging $4,851 per dwelling unit discounted to 2009 dollars - were sufficient to repay the average $4,524 per-unit cost of implementing the standards in all eight areas. These are described in more detail below, along with their key elements. To achieve the greatest benefit, and to ensure they are addressing all facets of green building, developers are urged to take an integrated design approach to green construction and rehab and use the Green Communities Criteria as a guide for establishing cost-effective green strategies early in the design and development process.
Strategies for Adopting Green Building Standards
NSP grantees have multiple options for ensuring that green building standards are incorporated into housing programs. The first is to adopt a set of standards that is applied to all NSP-assisted
housing (known as the “prescriptive method”). The second is to evaluate each house individually, the “house
-
by house” approach.
The prescriptive method is useful when operating a high volume program, while the house-by-house approach is suitable when there are fewer properties addressed. The graphic on the following page illustrates the components of each method. In the prescriptive approach, the grantee assembles a team of staff and other stakeholders to review potential green building standards and options, assess the local housing stock and the local availability of products, and develop the standards. Before final adoption, there should be a review process in which a broader array of partners and stakeholders can comment on the proposed standards. Once adopted, the grantee should create a corresponding set of specifications to be implemented by participating developers and their contractors. Providing training to housing rehab specialists, energy auditors, and other staff on how to work with the new standards and specifications is imperative, as well as training for local contractors on the proper implementation of these green strategies.

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